if the morales to stop the killing, we need a better method. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" starts right now. president obama has just announced that the four-day air assault in libya will soon achieve its objectives and the u.s. will handoff control of the operation within days. >> what are we attempting to >> what are we attempting to accomplish? >> extend the no-fly zone west towards tripoli. >> what are we attempting to accomplish. >> first comes the war, now the debate. what's the mission in libya? >> you understand there is still not a sufficient no-fly zone. >> the president couldn't say yet. still going to hand it off in days, didn't say who's going to be in charge. >> our jets are taking sides in a civil war. >> we kill his soldiers, we attack his compound, and apparently attempt to kill him.

>> the obama administration's reason? pick fne. >> gadhafi needs to go. >> u.s. policy regime check. >> there hasn't been any disagreement that i'm aware of in terms of the mission. >> president obama says that the engagement in libya will be brief. >> one of our biggest concerns is libya descending into chaos and becoming a giant somalia. >> the president takes heat from all sides. >> tough questions from both parties in congress. >> he is facing a political mess. >> the president just did not adequately consult with the hill. >> the president is acting outside of the authority of the constitution. >> dennis kucinich is here to make his case. >> dennis kucinich and ron paul are one thing. when you get uáát+h&ike richard lugar. >> i would argue if we go into a war with libya, we should declare war on libya. >> damn right. >> we have an unconstitutional war launched by the president of the united states.

>> they say there was ample precedence for this in republican and democratic white houses. >> lied about a war and we're still there. >> what about bahrain, saudi arabia? >> we are at war? again? >> good evening from new york, it is day four of operation odyssey dawn, the u.n. sanctioned mission to enforce a no-fly zone over libya and protect the libyan people from moammar gadhafi's forces. gadhafi remains defiant, telling a crowd of supporters tonight we will be victorious in the end. in an interview with abc news diane sawyer, secretary of state hillary clinton said the libyan dictator may be planning an exit. >> we've heard about other people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world, africa, the middle east, europe, north america, beyond, you know, saying what do

we do, how do we get out of this. what happens next. >> overnight, the{ allied forces lost a fighter jet, this mission's first. a u.s. f-15. experienced an equipment malfunction in a radon anti-aircraft defenses in eastern libya. a military spokesman says it was not due to enemy fire. both crew members ejected and are safe with minor injuries. on the ground in eastern libya, rebel forces forced heavy fire from the west. loyalist snipers are responsible for 40 deaths in the strong hold of misrata.ç they hit targets at anti-aircraft fire continued through the night. al jazeera reports one of the heads of the battalion was killed. u.s. forces fired 162 tomahawk missiles, nearly all fired by the u.s., each costing about a

million dollars. there were 20 fired overnight. earlier today, defense secretary robert gates said coalition military action should recede in the next few days, as should the u.s.' role. >> seems logical once we have the air defense system sufficiently suppressed that the level of military activity would decline. >> talking about u.s. military involvement? >> everybody's. but again, it will be other members of the coalition that on a day-to-day basis will be sustaining the no-fly zone. >> joining me now, msnbc terrorism analyst evan coleman. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> forces inside libya, rebel forces, what do we know about the capacity to continue this campaign, given the situation as it is today? >> this is not a professional military. these are civilians drawn into this that literally grabbed

weapons, stood up. this is not a comment on their{ courage, and not a comment on good faith effort, but the reality is that they have very limited capabilities. this is not a military well equipped, doesn't have a large amount of ammunition or weaponry and doesn't know how to use it. i mean, we can see evidence of that by looking on television. we can see these folks shot down their own aircraft, one of the few aircraft they have. even foreign fighters, al qaeda types trying to join the folks are coming back and saying you know, they are disorganized and inept. >> now, the president and the allies seems to me have basically bet on these rebels, that the only reason to go intoç this no-fly zone exercise and the extensions of it and for the other activities involved already, the mission creep that's already there, is because you believe the rebels will be victorious. if you believe all you are fighting for was some kind of standoff between the rebels and gadhafi, would you set up the no-fly zone? >> look, i would like to be

optimistic, too. i would like to think they cannady feet gadhafi militarily. i don't believe they're going to be able to do that as things stand right now. then we get in a very, very difficult problem which is the issue of arms sales. these folks are looking to buy weapons. we have a choice, we can sell them weapons or not. if we sell them, we contribute to arms proliferation in northern africa. if we don't sell them weapons, they turn to people like victor bout, a notorious arms smuggler or al qaeda. we have seen it before, happened in bosnia in the mid 1990s. it is a difficult situation. there is no easy answer here. it is going to take a lot more than air strikes to unseat gadhafi. >> what does it mean to the rebels tactically when they hear president obama saying he only wants to do this a short time, he's not in this for a long term commitment? >> there's a disconnect there. that's not what they're saying. they are saying we are waiting for more tactical air strikes on gadhafi's forces in misrata, benghazi benghazi, wherever.

we are looking for forward motion. that doesn't seem to be the exact plan of the u.s. military, and there is this disconnect. you wonder at what point are w{( going to see some sustained rebel campaign to try to take back these areas that were in their hands that have been lost. it is not clear when that's going to happen, how it is going to happen, or how long it will take. let's remember, gadhafi reinforced his forces in this area, brought in mercenaries and tanks. this is not going to be so easy to do. not going to be easy with air cover or period. >> what if the rebels make a stronger move against gadhafi's forces, a move to win, as it ç were. is there a kind of air support under these circumstances that would really help them? >> tactical air support. if they are going into get them out of the areas, they need tanks. that seems to be one of the major issues. forget about the air force, it

is the heavy arm or being brought in by gadhafi's forces. that's where they have the lack of capability of confronting those kind of weapons. and unless we contribute with either direct tactical assistance in terms of the offensive or provide them with anti-tank weapons, again, that gets us into a very dangerous situation. >> terrorism analyst, evan kohlmann, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. they will transfer command in case, not weeks, but who takes that command is under negotiation. president obama and british prime minister david cameron want nato to take a bigger role. nato agreed to enforce an arms embargo. russia and turkey hindered further involvement. turkey's prime minister told the ruling party turkey, quote, will never point a gun at the libyan people. defense secr

>> this command and control business is complicated. we haven't done something like this kind of on the fly before, so it's not surprising to me it would take a few days to get it allhsorted out. >> joining me now, "the washington post" columnist and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. >> good to be here. >> we've never done this on the fly before. sounds like an enthusiastic secretary of defense about the mission undertaken. >> boy, you know, you just can't wait, let's get in there. we've never done it on the fly, don't know how it is going to work out. these things take time, and by the way we're going to be done with all this mess in a few days. none of that goes together. attack on moammar gadhafi tyrannical regime will be disappointed. why?

>> i think if we are going to have humanitarian military intervention, we should have a debate about that. we should talk about that. you could make a serious intellectual argument for humanitarian military intervention in this sort of situation. but why in libya and not, for example, in yemen where there's a brutal dictator suppressing his citizens' legitimate demands for universal rights with brutal violence. why not in bahrain where their dictators are doing the same. we do it in libya because we don't like gadhafi, but we don't like the guy i think is not a compelling reason or not the keystone of a doctrine that you can use going forward or even apply consistently now. >> isn't the truth that we don't have a doctrine that we can

shape to use in these things, and what we're really doing historically and today is making realistic assessments of what can we actually do in a given situation, and the president and the allies made what may be an unrealistic assessment, but to them is a realistic assessment help. those libyan people we see being attacked we believe we have a way of helping them, and when we look at other crises, they look at them around the world and say there isn't much we can do about that. techniques we have won't help in that area. is that what we have, they think a no-fly zone will probably help, let's do it? >> i think in part. i mean, there's a political dimension, however. one reason we don't do it in yemen, for example, is that president saleh, the dictator iç yemen, been there 32 years, we spent a lot of time, effort and money into converting him in an ally in the fight against al qaeda and we don't want to give that up.

push him out, what do you get? similarly, in bahrain, the family suppressing the sunni royal family suppressing the shiite majority quite brutally are nice enough to host the u.s. navy's 5th fleet which allows us to patrol shipping lanes of the persian gulf and counter iranian influence. so, you know, we can't do it there. so there's a political component as well, and i guess you factor that into the question of what is possible, what is doable. now, is this mission doable, is this mission possible, can you from the air even protect civilians, let alone affect regime change and i think the jury is out on that. >> and the question is how long can you do this exercise has become important since the president's imperative is that it be short? >> he says it's going to be short. i would be a bit concerned about overpromising right now as to how quickly we're going to be

out. one imagines we destroy the libyan air force, air capability, but as was pointed out, he still has tanks. he is still going to move on the rebel strongholds, once he has a chance to. then the mission becomes bomb the tank columns, how far do we go. meanwhile, u.s. policy is clearly regime change, but we're not supposed to{ enforce that policy with this military intervention. it is a bit confusing. >> so the riddle continues. msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson, thanks for joining us. >> great to be here. still to come, congressman dennis kucinich says the u.s. can't afford the price of attacking libya. move to libya. pull funds from the war effort in libya. he joins us next. and later, the republicans lose another soldier in their war against planned parenthood.

senator scott brown says he cannot support the house republicans' plan to cut all funding for family planning, deepening a growing divide in the republican party as budget talks reach a critical juncture. . t metimwoe.. hat's ft beh fele announcer ] introducing purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. developed with dermatologists... it's clinically proven to remove 99% of dirt and toxins and purify pores. and with natural willowbark it contains no dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. dirt and toxins do a vanishing act and my skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser from the new line of neutrogena naturals.

will the military operation in libya get caught in the political tug of war over the budget? up next, congressman dennis kucinich will explain why he will introduce legislation to make sure federal money no longer goes to the attacks on libya. also, critical lessons from the japan nuclear power crisis. if you live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, and most of you do, just know there is no real evacuation plan if something goes wrong. and glenn beck is back in the "rewrite." [ male announcer ] one look can turn the everyday into romantic.

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if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if cialis for daily use is right for you. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com. this brutal dictator is threatening his people, saying he will show no mercy and go door to door hunting people down, and we have the capacity under international sanction to do something about that when we can have some impact on that with a relatively modest contribution as part of a broader international effort, then i absolutely believe the costs are outweighed by the benefits. >> some of the strongest criticism of president obama's decision to attack libya is coming from the left.

today, ohio congressman dennis kucinich called for banning any more federal money from being used to fund u.s. military operations in libya, citing figures that put the cost of enforcing the no-fly zone at up to $800 million to start. another 100 million each additional week. he will introduce his amendment to the next budget bill when come reconvenes next week. and it comes after dennis kucinich already raised the question of whether the president's actions in libya constitute an impeachable offense. joining me now, dennis kucinich. thanks for{ joining us tonight. >> thank you very much. good to be with you. >> congressman, george will said today in his column that congress's power to declare war resembles a muscle that has atrophied from long ab stengs from proper exercise. this power was last exercised on june 5, 1942, almost 69 years ago.

should the president have askedç congress to declare an act of war? >> he could have asked for declaration of war or authorization for use of military force. unfortunately, he didn't do either. >> and do you think there's any prospect of being able, through the budget process, especially in the house of representatives where the amendment process is so limited, do you have any parliamentary procedure you can use in the budget process to actually get this question to a vote? >> well, we'd have to have the cooperation of the rules committee in order to bring it up, either to have the amendment made an order or have it brought up under unanimous consent. fact of the matter is this is the only way for congress to be able to assert its constitutional, institutional prerogative to make or declare war, and the president has

really stunningly asserted the ability to make war that congress does not provide for the executive branch, and in fact candidate obama on december 20, 2007 told the boston globe that a president wouldn't have the ability unilaterally to use force against another nation without congressional intent. >> president obama now maintains the war powers act enables him to do this, that is what other presidents before him cited going forward in these kinds of exercises without a congressional vote of approval{ beforehand, that the war powers act in effect delegates that authority to the president, and the president need only to report to the congress been 48 hours about what he has done. >> well, you know, that's something that needs to be challenged because congress cannot truly give away its constitutional right that was put in article 1, section 8, by the founders. they wanted to restrain what they called the dog of war, they

didn't want it in the hands of an executive. they wanted it in the hands of a direct representative of the people. the war powers act actually needs to be challenged because in it congress essentially ç provides a vehicle for seeding to the executive the ability to wage war. this is not an academic issue. it a president can take this country into a war straining greater the military, causing huge expenses that we don't know how we are going to pay for, didn't come to congress, this is a problem. >> congressman, the president believes he had to take action quickly as soon as the u.n. authorized it to save lives, save lives of the rebels and the people of libya that the dictator was threatening. the president said this leader was threatening to go door to door. gadhafi said i will find you in your closet and get you. with the leader threatening his own people like that, with time of the essence to save lives,

what is wrong with the president taking this action as quickly as he did, and according to the war powers act reporting to congress after the fact. >> we want the president to be compassionate. we also want him to follow the constitution. the war powers act, what was passed by congress doesn't trump the constitution. and there's another issue here, and that is that the president's administration had time line up all their support at the united nations with ten different nations. had time to get{ the support, at least temporarily of the arab league, line up nato, have coordination with great britain and france, had time to do all that, but didn't have time to come to the united states congress? why is this even a close question? he should have come to congress, he may have received authorization. >> congressman dennis kucinich, democrat of ohio. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. last night, we tried to explain the bizarre rules that led to the name odyssey dawn for the operation in libya. you did your homework, sent

suggestions for better names. we will bring some of the better names next. later, glenn beck is going after me again, and this time he doesn't even have the guts to say my name, not that that would actually take guts. that's in tonight's "rewrite."

ask me.

odyssey dawn? you really name a combat operation after a yes album?

>> they are calling it operation odyssey dawn. i believe it is the first military operation named for a stripper. >> odyssey dawn? that's not a military operation! that's a carnival cruise ship! >> last night on this program, i asked you to come up with a better name than operation odyssey dawn. the rules of naming this operation as laid down by the pentagon require that the first word begin with o, the second ç word must start with a through f. among the best of more than 600 suggestions we received, operation obama biden or obama clinton from joan on twitter. on our blog, will submitted operation omit congress. kate adkins came up with operation or else. florence came up with over fast. and open ended. for more on the names, head over to the blog.

as scientists and engineers work to keep radiation from spewing from the reactors in japan, new worries about safety at the plants in the u.s. one calls the u.s. evacuation plans fantasy documents. he joins me next. and if you live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, and most americans do, you need to hear what he has to say. and republican senator scott brown is going against his republican colleagues that want to kill all funding for planned parenthood.

the after effects of the tragic earthquake and tsunami iç japan are still being felt there. just an hour ago, a 6.0 aftershock hit near fukushima and was felt as far away as tokyo. there were also some signs of progress today. major roads to the areas most affected by the earthquake are opened. that is making it easier to get

relief surprise to more than 350,000 displaced residents. power cables are now attached to all six reactors at the fukushima nuclear power plant and external power has been partially restored to the control room of reactor three. lighting will make conditions easier for engineers who are working to restore full power to the plant to restart the cooling continued to spray water on reactors three and four to try to keep fuel rods cool. iaea officials say radiation is still emitting from the plant, but they are unclear what the sources of it are. some traces of fukushima's radiation were detected over 5300 miles{ away today in iceland and over 4600 miles away in seattle, washington. and the fda announced today it will stop imports of dairy products and produce from the fukushima area because of radiation concerns.

here in the u.s., the nuclear regulatory finds lessons from the disaster. nrc officials say they plan to make safety at new york's vulnerable indian point nuclear power plant a top priority. new york governor andrew cuomo y not work. >> if you were talking about 15 miles from the indian point power plant, you're talking all of new york city, parts of connecticut, long island, talking about new jersey. by some estimates, 6% of the nation's population would be in that zone.ç so evacuation i don't believe is even a feasible concept. >> joining me now, and yell aldrich, professor of political science at perdue university and offer the site fights. thanks for joining us.

evacuation plan from a place like indian point, especially if you want to use that 50 mile radius that the united states is recommending as the relevant radius in japan. when you look at that, it includes all of new york city, much of northern new jersey, a massive population, limited roadways. isn't this the quintessential example of just how much fantasy is involved in these so-called evacuation plans around nuclear power plants in the united states? >> absolutely. the strongest drive we all have is self preservation, and the test of this was today i checked in indiana. do any local pharmacies have{ potassium iodine still in stock? the answer is no. so if americans 7,000 miles away are buying up stocks of this

medicine now, imagine the fear we all feel, the anxiety we feel about radiation more broadly. so if there's a problem at the indian point reactors in new york, with 8 million people at least within 50 miles of that plant, we will see i think a tremendous amount of confusion and chaos as people locally flee and do their best to preserve themselves. >> that's the example that is so pointed. but the truth is that most americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant. and certainly if we recommend that you evacuate a 50 mile radius, in america, that's going to become 100 miles. meaning anyone that lives 60 miles from a nuclear power plaf is going to think hey, i am getting out of here, too. when you look at the 50 mile radiuses, the reality is if we ever had to give that warning, there would be widespread chaos of people beyond that 50 mile radius trying to figure out what to do, wouldn't there? >> every plant has an official ten mile evacuation plan. and the 50 miles we are hearing

now is relatively arbitrary, numbers are political, not based on radiation counts or human biology or even meteorology. these are made by planners whose job is to take the uncertain risks of radiation and possible human fallout and make it into acceptable risks that corporations, insurance companies and local residents can feel comfortable with. we have seen in past disasters, three mile island, or 9-11, or hurricane katrina, what really happens when people and disasters meet. in mosse whhegin the ordeorot asked to leave or not, people get in cars and drive away. it creates bottle next, stressed out, people have heart attacks. we have also seen when the evacuations happen that first responders, police people, { firemen, bus drivers, people we saw in hurricane katrina,

many officers had to struggle, do they go home, save their family and possessions or do their job. that challenge for every first responder will be there, whether in indian point or in illinois. the challenge is real for all of us. >> and that multi directional reaction in case of an evacuation order applies to a lot of people. parents are going to want to go back and get their children, want to go against the direction of the evacuation. relatives will be wanting to do that, people will be doing it with loved ones in all sorts of directions, that's another unrealistic component in the so-called evacuation plans that aren't really plans at all.ç i wish we had more time to this. we want to come back. thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thank you very much. earlier today, republican senator scott brown released a statement saying he does not support his party's push to defund planned parenthood. is this the massachusetts lawmaker's attempt at scoring points with his generally liberal electorate?

and glenn beck gets the "rewrite" on both his radio and television shows. yesterday, glenn beck railed against me without ever daring to say my name.{

>>yeery,le bk id was nongod fearing and worked for an anti-god network. but beck is at this point in his war with me at the point where he cannot bring himself to say my name, not even once. that's in tonight's "rewrite." and later, republican senator scott brown defies his party and says he will not vote for the republican backed bill that would slash $300 million in funding for planned parenthood. why the massachusetts senator decided to take a stand coming up

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that can help you discuss p.a.d. together. call the toll free number on the screen for your free information kit today. the risk is real. take the next step. call today. time for tonight's "rewrite," and back to glenn beck. he is very angry with me. so angry he dare not speak my name. >> one of the other news networks, one of the clearly nongod fearing folks had this opinion. no half smart person believes the book of revelation to me. that is incredible to me. he added he was 100% certain end times wouldn't be any time soon. well, i don't think so either.

i don't know if i would say 100% sure. >> now, the business man in beck, the part of him{ that makes over $32 million a year, while pretending to be a man of the people, doesn't want to talk about me at all. that part of him worries that he could drive some viewers to me. beck, himself, has obviously become a regular viewer, since he has quoted everything i've said about him in the last several shows. i've gotten to beck as no one has before. thrown him off his game by going where none of his television critics have gone before, to his preaching, to the religious components of his fact-free presentations on fox news and his radio show. this beck cannot abide because beck has enjoyed the convention that we must never talk about another person's religious beliefs. that convention is most strictlç observed by people who know the least about religion. the more religious education you have, the less trained you are to observe a phony zone of

sanctity around this subject. with 12 years of formal religious education behind me, in which matters of doctrine and faith were debated religiously by nuns and priests, i don't have the fear beck thrives on, the political media fear of religion. without that collective media fear, beck's act would have collapsed a long time ago. this is a man who has admitted shopping for a religion after meeting his second wife, and thinking if he was going to start a second marriage, wouldn't it be convenient to enlist in a second religion. and no one has said that's odd. beck has been telling his audience the breakdown of the nuclear reactors in japan may be signaling the end of the world. he said i don't know if this is the end of the world. he is now enraged that i have

told you the {truth, that it is not the end of the world, that i know it's not the end of the world. he's enraged i would dare to suggest that the book of revelation has nothing to do with what is going on in japan or in the world today, and that i know it has nothing to do with it. he is much more enraged that i have said good and thoughtful christians do not believe the book of revelation, just as no good and thoughtful christian literally believes everything in the bible. to believe everything in the bible, you would have to believe the proper penalty for not keeping the sabbath is death. the proper penalty for dishonoring your mother and father is death, that children should be killed for that. to believe the bible literally, you would have to believe the proper penalty for adultery is death.ç no one believes that. and beck dares not take up those specific passages of the bible i have cited, that i have said beck himself does not believe.

he will not address those. christianity has matured into a selective process where christians take what makes sense to them in the old and new testament and ignore the rest. to believe the book of quote, and the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth, and the dragon waxed roff with the woman and went away to make war with the rest of her seed. you also obviously have to believe in riddles, because of course what i just read makes absolutely no sense. though beck is constantly citing the genius of the founding fathers, he will never tell you that one of those geniuses, thomas jefferson, considered the book of revelation,quote, merely

the ravings of a maniac no more worthy of explanation than the incoherences of our nightly dreams. jefferson went on to say i do not consider them as revelations of the supreme being, whom i would not so far blaspheme as to impute to him a pretension of revelation, couched at the same time in terms which he would know were never to be understood by those to whom they were addressed. in jefferson, selective view of christianity, the book of revelation he took as blasphemy. that's how wide opinion is on the book of revelation. $r+h0ç"k of fic. beck calls it the word of god.c. it is the selective sampling of the bible that allows christianity to thrive. it would die as a religious ç

practice if it continued to hold adulterers should be killed or children who dishonor their parents should be killed instead of given a timeout. christianity has adapted to the modern world. it has dropped its homicidal impulses that led to the burning of witches and inquisitions and crusades. his fake biblical liberalist piety has taken itself to an extreme. there was ultimately nowhere else for it to go. so it has arrived to the point where on a daily basis glenn beck says to his audience i don't know if it's the end of the world. he doesn't know if it's today. he doesn't know if it's tomorrow. the question now is how long will his audience allow him to be wrong? today it turns out is not the end of the world.

i told you it wasn't going to be. tomorrow isn't either. tomorrow the great religious schools and universities{ of the world where glenn beck has never been enrolled will continue to teach nonliteral interpretations of the bible, in particular, the book of revelation. and tomorrow, glenn beck will be torn between the businessman side of himself who wants to never refer to me again for another day, and the religious fanatic side of himself that so far has been unable to resist the temptation i have put before him. knowing what i know about beck, his money, and his religion, i'm betting on the businessman to win. [ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow

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today, south dakota signed one of the most creative and certainly the cruellest anti-abortion bills into law. it requires a woman seeking abortion to first stop in for consultation with an unlicensed, unregulated, unacredited center dedicated to convincing her to bring the child to term. to quote, educate, counsel, otherwise assist women to help them maintain the relationship with their unborn child, end quote. the new law also forces women in south dakota to wait three days before the service can be performed. the longest waiting period in the country. all of this anti-abortion panic in south dakota makes even less sense, given there is not a single doctor in south dakota ç who performs any kind of abortion services.

the only way the right to choose ever exists in south dakota is through planned parenthood's single clinic there, which flies doctors in once a week from out of state. in washington, d.c., self proclaimed small government, anti-tax conservatives are pushing a crazy bill through the house of representatives that would force irf agents who have no expertise in doing this to investigate whether a woman's pregnancy was the result of rape or incest and would require the woman to provide legal documentation, proving she was a victim. also that no federal funds can ever go to abortion services. in a sign that perhaps some republicans are growing uncomfortable with their party's increasingly radical proposals, massachusetts senator scott brown released a statement saying he would not vote to cut $300 million in funding for planned parenthood.

i support family planning and health services for women. given our severe budget problems, i don't believe any area of the budget is completely immune from cuts. however, the proposal to{ eliminate all funding for family planning goes too far. as we continue with budget negotiations, i hope we can find a compromise that is reasonable and appropriate. senator brown joins lisa murkowski in alaska in coming out in opposition to the how's efforts to de-fund planned parenthood. joining me now, david corn, msnbc political analyst and washington editor for mother jones. thanks for joining us, david. >> good evening, lawrence. >> david, scott brown, why did he make this decision. he has been pro-choice. the funding of planned parenthood is something else. >> yes. you know, when the house bill with the budget cuts came over to the senate, which included zeroing out $300 million for planned parenthood, not for abortion, but for cancer screening and birth control and other health services, he voted for it.ç now he is saying he is against

the cuts. i think it is probably because he may believe it, but it is actually good in massachusetts where people tend to be more socially liberal, even if you're republican, to become not part of this planned parenthood crusade, anti-planned parenthood crusade being mounted by the republicans in the house. he and senator murkowski from alaska are saying no. we may see a few more moderate republicans in the senate joining them the next couple days or weeks. >> what else do you expect to see of scott brown? he's in a re-election cycle already in massachusetts where as you say, he is going to have to appeal in that zone. does he know who he is going to be up against? does he have a target who he is up against as a democratic challenger? >> doesn't know yet. listen, he ran a great campaign when he won in that special election. he is exactly where a republican

wants to be in massachusetts. he has a lot of charisma. he is trying to work his way between the tea party and liberal democrats of massachusetts. remember, he was the tea party darling when he won because he took away the democratic 60 seat majority in the senate, and that was important in the healthcare fight. but he's{ been anything but a tea party candidate. i think he's going to continue to go where he has to be to fend off any strong challenge, which should still be a competitive race when it comes down to it in 2012. >> looks like house republicans have come up with a creative, some would say did i meanted idea how to use the irs. which by the way, david, as far as i can tell is yet another republican way to allow people to pay less taxes. if you have irs people checking whether people were raped, doing those investigations, you can get away with anything you want in a tax return? >> i give credit to nick bowman from mother jones that broke this story.

what happens here, let's take a step back. what did john boehner say during %-pthis is about jobs, jobs, jo jobs. since the republicans have taken over, they have spent more time trying to figure out what they can do to stop abortion across the country in any did i meanted way they can than any jobs creation initiative. the latest thing is they want to take away all tax benefits that could conceivably be used for abortion, so that even if you have to have an abortion because of rape, incest, the life of the mother, they want the irs agents that audit you, this only happens if you're audited, to make sure you didn't use any money that isn't taxable, that isn't a tax benefit or tax deduction. so if you have an audit, they say excuse me, did you have an abortion? we want to make sure you didn't use the hsa, health savings account for that. and if you did, you have to